Project: Spectacular Self Insertion
by Windona
Summary: Warning; this is a test to see if a self-insertion can be well written. Explore this scientific attempt with caution.
1. First Impressions

Project Spectacular Self-Insertion

_**Warning; **__This is an experiment. The hypothesis: to see if a self-insertion can be well written and received. Proceed with caution. Some adjustments have been made to author's life for the ability to fit into this fictional world, as a lack of knowledge about Spider-Man, making a parent's project work forcing the author to move in with her older brother, and having said author's oldest brother move to Forrest Hills with his wife. Notice: others participating in this experiment is welcome. Data collection is welcome._

It was my first day going to school at Midtown Magnet- something with another M included in there. I think. This was my first time moving in my sixteen years of life. I mean, my mom had lived in my house since the mid 80's! Although many students do this. Aug. I honestly never thought that my mom would get her hospital project started in Nigeria. Or was it Kenya? Or Sierra Leone? I know I've met people from each of those countries, but I don't pay attention to my mom too much. I think she's a bit crazy. Then again, I'm saying that and I am a self-proclaimed insane nerd. Proclaimedly? I screwed that sentence up, didn't I?

Oh! Back to the point. I chose to go live with Angus because he has a larger place, has more time, and lives in New York where rumors of a masked vigilante beating up criminals has come from. Which is completely awesome. It's like there's a super hero in real life! And I am a complete fan of super heroes and comic books. Although I'm more of a fan of the real life ones popping up, like the urban legend of Spider-Man (whose territory is supposed to be where I'm moving to [YAY!]}, or the Iron Man guy who stopped that Russian dude.

So why am I rambling? Because the high school I used to go to was in a small suburban middle to upper middle class town where my grade had 180 students. I knew exactly how to get to my middle school and high school on my first day of them, and all were within reasonable walking distance. I knew most of my classmates since sixth grade, and about a third since elementary school. I knew people in different grades, and I got the layout of the high school in my head down in a day or two because I had been there for all of my brothers' graduations, for singing concerts when I was in a chorus during elementary school (it was an outside of school chorus, I was kicked out because I had a cold one day).

Point is, I knew my home town like the back of my hand. I knew the people so god damn well. Now I'm in a new town half way through high school. Not just any town; from a town of 14,000 that was less than three square miles to a town of millions that sprawls out. I'm nervous as hell about these New Yorkers, especially since I'm from South Jersey (the southern half of New Jersey for those not in the know about local terminology) and identify with Philly more than NYC. So my brother dropped me off at Midtown, and I have to breathe multiple times. This has happened to me before. I know that I just have to break the ice and I'll be fine. But I'm walking up to the gate and see these students all over the place. There's a group of guys wearing green and white letter jackets at school, something I've never seen before at my old school. Cheerleaders are wearing green and white cheerleading outfits. I had no idea there would be a game on the first day, but I never went to a football game at my old school either. Somehow I have the feeling they wouldn't be as nice as the football guys at my old school, or the cheerleaders there. So I walk up to a blond haired girl with glasses standing next to a red head who looks like a prep (to borrow the word from Ebony D'mentia Way or however you spell it) and am about to ask them how to get to the main office for my schedule when the boy said, "Is he?". The blond girl responds with a, "I think he is". Right as I'm about to ask them, a loud shrieking voice 'asks' "Are you _damaged_!". They respond in unison "He did".

"I know this isn't a good time, but could you help the lost suburban new kid in finding the office?" I ask. They turn around, and the blonde girl says, "Of course. Just go in the main entrance, and turn right. It should have a little sign above it as you walk down the hall."

"Thanks. I hope to see you again." I scurry off, thinking that I annoyed them or something because I obviously should have waited a bit to ask them, but I'll deal with the fallout later.

The secretary lady is really nice, and while she gives me the schedule she tells me where my locker is and where my homeroom is. Once there, we go through the familiar ritual of locker assignment. I end up near two cheerleaders, one of which has the harpy voice and blond hair. She kind of reminds me of my old school's slut, except Sarah was funny and could be nice. I guess the last name of 'Blossfeld' condemned me. It's annoying, but seeing as I can use my back pack to carry around most of my books, note books and binders, I'll be fine.

So my first class of the day was biology. The two teens I talked to before school were there, with this brunette whose eyes matched his hair. Huh. He was wearing a primary color, his male friend was wearing a secondary color (seriously; he looked like a Christmas tree with his brown pants, green sweater vest thing, white undershirt for snow, and his red hair. It's kinda neat, actually), and their token girl friend was wearing pink. I mean friend who is a girl, ok? I mean, it'd be weird if she was dating both of them at once. Although I have met a woman who dates multiple guys at once, but none of them were serious. She was one of my crew coaches freshman year, but she didn't coach me much.

Right. Going off track again. Sorry; I'm inconsistent and flighty and all of that. Which is why I really need to update my fanfics soon; but first I should focus on my grades this year. Anyway, I managed to find a seat in bio, and after class I asked the red head where my next class is. He gave me directions, which worked. See, my first day of high school I was a bit discombobulated (I can't believe I spelled that right on the first try!) and I remember an upperclassman giving me the wrong directions, only for a teacher walking down the halls to hear it and set me right. So I decided to either ask a teacher, or someone who I knew. In this case, I asked two people who seemed nice and on the side lines, and it's steered me well so far.

So school continued onwards in introduction mode with teachers handing out syllabuses and telling us what we needed. Some things about this school I was not happy about. One, it didn't have an environmental sciences class like my old school did. Two, it did not have a rowing team. And that's my sport, which I'm really good at. Then again, my old rowing team did have some issues the last year, including a drunk coach (not going to go into that one). Three connected to two is that I had to take gym. They did not offer a dance class, and my old school offered that you did not have to take a marking period of gym for every season of a sport, so all I would have had to take is health. Then again, health this year would have been sex-ed online. Tell me that would not have been disastrous. And four, this school was not as friendly as my old school. Back home, we didn't have cliques of this degree. Honestly, I feel like I'm in a TV show with the cheerleaders always acting like high and mighty bitches whereas some cheerleaders from my old school were friends with the nerds, nerdy themselves, or otherwise really nice.

Ok, now that I've whined enough about these circumstances, it's time for me to say what's awesome about this place. One, it's tall. Two, we can eat lunch on the friggin' roof! It was confusing at first, but it's soooo awesome! Three, I like the German teacher here. I was going to drop this year because of how he would sometimes spend a whole period telling us how we're not living up to our potential and such bad students, but since I was moving here I decided why not? Finally and fourthly- I can make a new start. As cliché as it sounds, nobody here knows about the tail I wore during 8th grade and freshman year. They don't know about the time I confessed my love to a boy in front of my second grade class and he broke down crying. As much as I love to ignore it, am an attention hog, and can shrug most things off, it can get to me sometimes. Rarely, but still. And I think I can be friends with the people I sat with at lunch.

Because at lunch, I sat with the red haired boy, brown haired boy, and the blonde girl who I saw earlier. I asked them if I could sit with them, and we had a neat conversation. Their names are Harry, Gwen, and Peter. It's nice to have someone to hang out with while I'm away from pretty much everything I ever knew except for a friend who's in college. I hope this year I can talk to Spider-Man (dream big, and you never know what can happen) and keep my grades up without letting laziness or my distracablity getting in the way. This is Patience Blossfeld, signing off.

* * *

_Determining if stage one was affective. Notice; later chapters may shift between first and thrid person. Canon may change. Omakes will be included occasionally. Another note; the author/self-insertion has siblings that are oddly named due to her mother being English/Irish blend with Austrailian/New Zealandish upbringing and having given the oldest brother a middle name from Hungry.  
_


	2. Second Day

_This chapter is in the third person in order to help with the development of the story. The author does not think in third person, as these are not her thoughts. Except here, the author does not write in 3rd person. _

_Hypothesis: A self insertion fan fiction can be well written if the author is willing to admit how they actually are to the world and them selves. _

It was her second day at school. She had combed her brown hair and walked out to the place the administrators told her the school bus would stop. Her heart was pounding as she had never used a school bus before. In her hometown, the school did not have buses. There were less than 200 students per a grade, and the town was not that big. It took her 30-40 minutes to walk to school, and she lived in one of the most remote places of town. By remote, she meant there was an invisible border between towns that cut off someone on her block's garage from their house. The residents ended up paying property tax on their house to one town, their garage to the other.

Visions of using a school bus on TV and movies scared her. She bet that Spider-Man never had to use a bus. As it pulled up, Patience boarded with yesterday's nervousness returning. In order to defeat that feeling, Patience took out a book and found an isolated seat to read at. When the jolting of the bus made it clear that reading would not be an endeavor she could do on the bus, she put it away and decided to look outside at the things that were passing by through her glasses as she pressed her head against the window. About a block away from school, she could have sworn she saw Spider-Man, and figured that she would borrow her brother's camera to take a picture of Spidey one day. If she was lucky, she could also find Iron Man, but that was not the superhero she was looking for.

School was school; Patience found that no matter which state you were in, if your high school had a pond next to it or not, classes still went on in the same approximate increments in time and the teachers still taught similar subjects. German was much easier for her here, as in her last two years her teacher had made her only speak German in class. Her new teacher did not have this requirement. Interestingly, German was one of the few classes she did not have with her trio of new friends. She found it odd, but then again maybe that was how other schools worked; after all, she heard a couple of students in her old school managed to have their classes synchronized and that they had every class possible together.

It was at lunch she brought this up. "How'd you guys get your classes synched?"

Gwen looked at her curiously. "We didn't. We just decided to take the same core classes, and everything else worked out. We don't have certain electives together; I don't have web design with Peter, I take ceramics."

"Oh. It's just weird though, that I see you guys together for most classes. I mean, even though you guys have different electives 4th period, you guys have the same elective for 6th. I only know about 4th period because I'm in Harry's food class."

"Actually, most students have as many classes together as possible. You've noticed how Flash, Liz and Sally are in our Bio, Gym, History, and English class? You'd be in most of our classes too, if you didn't take Trig this year" Peter answered.

"What can I say? I wouldn't have taken Calc until my senior year if I was on the advanced math track anyway. Speaking of which, why is Flash in the same bio class as you two? The teacher did say you guys were his best students, so shouldn't you be in AP Bio or Accel?" At this question pointed at his two friends, Harry's face became downcast and he suddenly became extremely interested in eating his cafeteria food.

Gwen and Peter looked at each other, and Gwen answered. "We don't have any accelerated or advanced tracks for science at M cubed."

Patience shrugged. "That sucks. Well, thanks for the expo speak on this school."

Gwen responded, "No problem. So, why did you move here?"

She shifted uncomfortably. "Is it ok if I wait for my second day to be over before I go into the details?"

There was a general murmur of agreement among the trio that it was fine.

"So, what about Spider-Man?" Patience asked in an obvious move to change the subject.

Harry quickly quipped, "He saved my dad's life yesterday from some nut named the Vulture."

Patience's eyes went wide, and an excited grin consumed her face. "Did you get to see him? Did you get a picture?"

"Um, no. My dad saw him, but I didn't. I was too busy calling the police."

"Damn. Well, better luck next time."

"Hopefully my dad's life won't be in jeopardy next time. But maybe Pete saw him; he was with me, and he chased after the guy."

Gwen couldn't help but laugh at that. "Peter, you tried to _run after_ a guy with a flying suit who managed to lift a grown man?"

Peter looked sheepish at that. "As I told Harry yesterday, it was kind of useless."

Patience interjected, "Did you get to see Spider-man?"

Peter shook his head. "No, I didn't really get that far in the chase. Why are you such a big Spider-man fan anyway?"

Patience sighed. "I've been a fan of superheroes nominally since 2002, but in 2007 I started to become a bigger fan. My best friend helped get me into comics last year, and I have a whole shelf full."

"Really? What superheroes?" Harry asked.

Patience opened her mouth, about to answer, when she shut it and frowned. "I don't remember. That's really weird. I know I liked the Dark Knight movies, but I'm not a DC comics fan. They're the only dominators of the comic book industry, I know, but I swear I have maybe five different continuities."

Harry shrugged. "Well, I can lend you a few of my comics if you want to get into comic books you'll actually remember."

Patience smiled. "Thanks. Can I stop by after school?" Inside, she was mentally brewing. With luck, she would finish them that night after reading them non-stop. Unless she borrowed a huge stack of comics; then even her appetite for books could not devour them.

"Sure. Maybe I can show you around a bit. Pete, Gwen, you can join us if you want."

Peter sighed. "Sorry Harry, I would, but I'm going to be at the Conners' lab with Gwen."

"Maybe next time", Gwen added with a slightly devious look. Conveniently, the bell rang then and the din of talking students followed them as they went down the gloomy stairs to descend from the heaven of lunch to the bowels of the school.

School was fine. Patience drifted out a bit; she had always understood biology, math, history and literature well enough. That came from her mom, dad, sister in law and oldest brother, what with them being scientists. The history lessons came from her mother's ex boyfriend, whom Patience had grown up with as a father figure, being a history lover and giving her books about the past. Math just came naturally- it was all logical and orderly. Literature came from her love of books and novels from the second she could understand those scribbles that made up words. Admittedly, one of her books had once been confiscated when she was reading it during class and she had been in trouble for staying up late to read books in elementary school. What Patience was horrible at, though, was doing her homework and socializing. She was the type who would give out sincere compliments that sounded like insults on occasion. She was the one who received a D on her report card twice due to her inability to finish a project. She rarely went over her own work, and suffered for it.

This year, she was determined not to do that. She did not have rowing to help her in the approaching college search, and academics would need to suffice. Of course, finding out about Spider-Man could not hurt. Unlike that test in Biology she had tomorrow, after only two days of class.

_It has been found that the timeline between the first two episodes do not quite fit. The second day of school in the series, the students receive tests back and Peter comments on how the Bugle printed an ad for his idea. Thus, the second episode has been moved back a few days._


	3. Three Work Out Buddies

_Hypothesis part B: A self insertion fan fiction also can be written well if the writer has a good gage of how they act and others react. In other words, they must have a good grasp on what their presence affects._

It was Monday before anything interesting happened again. Patience gave her borrowed comics to Harry, and tests were given back. Patience smiled at the A she received; it was not much of a surprise, probably being the easiest test of the year along with the first one. She wondered what other class Mr. Warren taught to have had Peter last year, and she also wondered what his whole weird moment about Spider-man pictures was about.

However, the main event of the day for her was that she was getting twitchy. Not literally, but mentally. Having been a member of her school's rowing team since January of her Freshman year, the lack of hard workouts had been getting to her. Over the summer that had been mitigated by biking and swimming in a pool, but now that she moved to New York and the pool season was coming to a close, she wanted to feel the burn of a hard workout. The desire to be unable to stand due to a hard fought race was rising. Not that anybody did try to stand up in a boat, but the feeling of jellied legs was the same.

The problem was she did not know one thing about the school's weight rooms, and the school did not have a rowing team. Apparently it was not a common sport in the New York area. Feeling that no other sport could quite satisfy her the same way, she was left to her memories and her notebook of past winter workouts. Gym class did not show her where the weight room was, and if it was open to those not doing sports. It was with this information she approached her new found friends with during lunch.

"So, do any of you know if the school has a weight room? And are willing to tell a girl obsessed with knowing that?"

"You use to work out?" Gwen blurted out.

That was a fair assessment of her. Upon joining her rowing team, Patience had weighed 220 pounds at 5'10". In those first few months, she lost twenty pounds and instantly felt much better health wise and mentally. She had not dropped any weight since then while retaining the same height. Much of her weight had been converted into muscle, but not enough that it showed when she was not working out or flexing her muscles. However, it showed whenever she hugged someone and lifted them up. Patience was a very huggy person.

"I know I don't look like it, but yes. Would you guys please show me the lifting room? Oh, maybe you could join me! Gwen, Peter, Harry, would you guys like me to give you a work out regiment that could make you on par with the football guys when it comes to muscles?"

"Sorry Patience, but I have to tutor Liz," Peter replied.

"I wouldn't mind. But I'm not exactly going to be great at it," Gwen replied.

Both girls looked at Harry. Unfortunately, they had caught him mid-bite. He gave a shrug, communicating a 'sure why not' to both girls. Really, Harry was debating whether or not studying more was a better use of his time than a potential way to avoid being picked on. He decided it could not hurt to try out what she had in mind. After all, if he did not like it he could just stop.

That afternoon, Patience smiled as she looked at the school gym. "This place is well stocked. They even have five ergs!"

Looking at her slightly ratty notebook she had brought in that day, and loving the fact the teacher assigned to the place said the gym was open to everyone from 3-4:30 PM, Patience had already begun formatting plans for the all important first workout.

"Alright. For your first day, I'll need to teach you guys how to use the erg properly. Then we'll weight lift some. We'll do the like for this week, then next week I'll test you guys out by making you pull a 2k."

"What's a 2k?" asked Gwen.

Patience got a devilish smile. "Two thousand meters of pure pain, exhaustion, and an inability to stand after words. In other words, everything rowing's about!"

Harry and Gwen traded looks that said 'what have we gotten in to?' before Patience continued.

"Alright, pick your erg and set the resistance to two or three. You use the lever on the side to set resistance."

For the next hour, Patience became their instructor and trainer. Thankfully, she was mainly showing them the technique of rowing. It was only for the last half hour that Patience decided that they should run the rest to at least gain a work out. After they finished, they went to their respective locker rooms and showered.

"You know, at my old school the showers didn't work in the locker rooms" Patience commented, having brought soap and other necessities with her when she learned about the showers.

"Really? So what did you guys do after gym class?"

"Just put on normal clothes and extra deodorant. Although I only took one marking period of gym over the last two years because I took the dance class option, and since dance was only available later in the day it wouldn't matter too much."

Tying her shoes, Gwen took out her cell phone and looked at it. "Crap! Sorry Patience, but do you mind if I run right out of here? If I'm not quick, I'll be late for the bus to Dr. Conners'."

Patience shook her head. "No problem, Gwen. I'll tell Harry; thanks for working out with me."

In a rushed manner, Gwen picked up her stuff and began talking quickly. "No problem, see you!" She then ran out the door.

Patience walked out the door and found Harry.

"Gwen went ahead to Doc Conner's. So, what did you think of today?"

"It wasn't that bad."

Patience smirked. "That's because we haven't done the hard workouts yet. I have to teach you how to use the erg properly before you can do twenty 40 second sprints with 20 seconds rest."

"I'll hold you to that. See you."

"Bye, Christmas." Patience left through a door and dashed to the buses before Harry could comment on her new nickname for him.

When she went home, Patience did not bother with the TV (she was always more of an internet person) or the radio. It was early in the school year, and not time for her to fall back into bad habits such as leaving homework to the last second- or not doing it at all. After managing to complete all of it in an hour, she surfed the internet. It was only when her older brother came home from work that she heard any news.

"Patience, did you hear about what happened today?" he said first thing.

"What? No. Why, what happened Angus?" Patience responded, semi-interested.

"There was a man made of pure electricity fighting Spider-man today, near a café in Manhattan."

"Spider-man? Why didn't you say so before? What was the café's name?"

"Café Armane's, I think the news report said. Why?"

Before her brother had answered, she would have responded that she wanted to get photos of Spider-man, or possibly meet him, however unlikely. Now she felt a little sick, seeming to remember that Peter said he would be tutoring Liz there.

It was then Patience looked up Peter's phone number on her laptop. The instant she found a Parker number that looked realistic for the area, she dialed it.

"Hello?" answered an elderly woman with a pleasant voice.

"Hi, this is Patience. Did I get the right number? Does Peter live there?"

"Yes. Why?" the woman inquired.

"Is Peter ok? I heard about a super villain fight near where he was tutoring, and wanted to make sure he wasn't hurt."

Her voice suddenly became much more worried and tighter. "He called me recently, and there was much static. I hope he's alright."

Just then, a sound in the background of garbled words and a door slam came out.

"He just arrived home, dear. Thank you for being so concerned." The lady hung up, and Patience breathed a sigh of relief.

"Well, I haven't lost a new friend to a super villain battle. That's good," Patience said half to herself and half to her eldest brother.

* * *

_Some things change, some things stay the same. Cannon will be affected; but other things will not be affected. Nothing is consequence free. _

_Episode two will continue to be addressed in the next chapter.  
_


	4. Fourth Friend

_Hypothesis part C: Self-inserts tend to become Mary Sues because the writers do not want to show their weakness and are afraid of revealing themselves._

* * *

Patience put on her all-important glasses that morning, feeling odd about her dream. She then chuckled at the image of Harry and the guy in her dream that played the role of Harry's father having cornrows. Like a business man could honestly have cornrows and be the threat that he was. As she put on her long white skirt and her black top, Patience mentally mulled over the dream. After all, dreams were windows to the subconscious, right? Like when Patience had that nightmare a few years ago about her mom dying in Africa of some disease that was easily cured in the US.

Patience shook her head at the thought of her mother. Her black sheep of a mother. Patience decided to eat her breakfast and think of her friends to clear her head of her conflicted thoughts on her mom. It was then her oldest brother conveniently entered the room.

"Oh, Patience, I was wondering if you want to go to the Quaker retreat again this year. I know you do it every year, and if you want Ann and I could come."

Patience hugged her brother. "Did I ever tell you how awesome you are?"

"Well, you did always say I was your favorite brother."

"Hey, it's a tie between you and Miles. Sane brother who knows awesome things about science versus a brother who is known for throwing chairs at his principal, a fellow student, and a teacher."

"And he chased after the track team with a sword in high school."

Patience laughed. "You've gotta be kidding me! Then again, it sounds like something he would do."

Having her morning demons chased away by her brother, Patience ran out the door to catch the bus. Her head filled with thoughts of her crazy awesome but really nice brother, she did not realize what her actions last night had caused. Which Peter told her in detail, at lunch.

"-so last night my Aunt made my curfew even stricter. So my waste of a night tutoring Liz was not only hampered by a super villain, it had personal consequences in my life," Peter polished off his rant.

Partially because she was trying to change the subjected and partially because she is somewhat of a space case, Patience added on, "I had a dream where Harry and this guy who was suppose to be his dad had cornrows."

This resulted in Peter, Harry and Gwen laughing. Gwen had water squirting out of her nose at the thought, and Harry almost choked on his bite of his sandwich. Peter just collapsed on the table.

"That is-" chuckle "one of the-" peal of laughter "most ridiculous things I've ever heard. Thanks for taking my mind off last night," Peter said, gathering his composure. The sight of the man who had yelled at the Vulture and was a hardened business man with that type of hair was as ridiculous to him as Sally being a super heroine.

"Hey, I don't take credit for what my crazy mind produces in the middle of the night. Or when I'm tired. Or when I've had a lot of sugar. I've done some crazy stuff after eating lots and lots of sugar."

"Like what?" Gwen asked with morbid curiosity.

"Oh, braiding a bunch of people's hair is just an example. Which is why I try to limit myself now, and why I stay away from drugs and alcohol as much as possible." Patience did not add her other reason for staying away from the stuff when at her old school plenty drank alcohol; her father figure was in AA and used to drink and do every drug under the sun except heroine, and he only met her and her mother ten years after he cleaned himself up and has since drilled it into her that it almost screwed up his life.

Getting back to the original subject, Harry asked, "So what are you going to do about tutoring Liz?"

"I told her that if she wants to be tutored, she could come to Doc Conner's lab. I doubt she'll come, though."

"Well, if she refuses help that's her problem. I mean, if she wants to waste her life and not try to get into college she can. If she wants to work harder and actually care about school, that's her choice too," Patience advised.

"Thanks. Just don't call my home if you hear about super villain attacks though, ok? I don't want to worry my aunt," Peter commented.

"Why do you live with your aunt?"

Suddenly, Peter seemed even more withdrawn and had a depressed air around him. "My, uh, parents died when I was younger, and my uncle died last May."

Patience's face sobered at the emotional wounds she had opened up. "Oh. Sorry. I didn't mean to-"

"It's ok."

Thankfully for Patience, the bell rang then. Everyone went their separate ways, and nobody was able to talk until they reconvened for the afternoon workout, minus Peter of course.

Deciding she could not make up or extract a workout from her workout book, Patience continued to show them how to use the erg then instructed them to do twenty minutes of steady state and pull a few power tens. At their blank stares, Patience decided to explain what they were from her erg in the center.

"Steady state is supposed to be 20 to 25 seconds above your 2k split. But since you guys haven't done a 2k yet, you'll be pulling whatever feels decently hard but doesn't seem like you'll die. It's more likely to make you go through a constant stream of sweat rather than make you exhausted, but it should still be hard. I'll be trying for a split of 2:10-2:15, but you guys should probably aim higher."

"What's a split?" Gwen asked, absolutely bewildered by all the rowing terminology thrown at her so quickly.

"It's how long it takes you to row 500 meters. It's the large number on your display, see? The one on the top right is your strokes per a minute, which on an erg race should be around 30, but today we'll work at a 20-22. Your display changes is you press the button or if you set your erg for a certain amount of meters, but currently the top right has the time spent rowing and the bottom has meters rowed and predicted amount of meters."

After that explanation, they began to erg. Patience wanted to talk to the others, but decided to focus on mentally counting so as to not mess up the timing and ratio, which if done badly would result in more exhaustion with little power output. As her erg was in the middle, nobody talked while they pulled steady state rowing.

Sneaking glances at her two new friends, Patience realized that Gwen had better technique, but was not holding her arms at the right level or putting enough power into her legs; instead, she relied on her arms for most of the power. Looking at Harry, Patience saw that he rowed with a more powerful stroke, but he opened up his back before his legs were fully down and his back was awkwardly curved. Patience gave small commands to them to help them improve their stroke, but Patience did not expect them to be perfect at it on their second day. After all, even erging required much technique, and an erg did not float. However, it was highly unlikely that any of them would actually row in a boat unless they tried out for a team in college. Still, technique was important if they wanted to use every inch of their power. Measuring the power, however, led to another issue: knowing how much they already had. This led her to an announcement to her little work out group at the end of the 'practice'. "Alright guys, on Thursday we are going to do a 2k!"

At this, they shrugged. Gwen asked, "So what will we do tomorrow, then?"

"Prepare for a 2k. We'll do a mock one, just to get you guys ready to realize how it will be like."

At that, the two friends shrugged and went to their respective locker rooms to shower up.

* * *

Gwen walked up to the entrance of ESU by herself, as Peter had not been on the bus. Opening the door, she realized Peter had arrived early.

"Ah, Gwen, right on time. I need you to help Eddie with his attempt to work on Max's cure," Dr. Martha Conners ordered in a neutral tone, carefully hiding her guilt. Gwen put down her backpack next to her seat, and sat down as Eddie told her what to do.

A few minutes into the work, Eddie jovially asked, "So, is school so bad you feel the need to wash yourself of it before you come here?"

Gwen looked at her damp hair and laughed. "No, it's just that there's this new kid at school I befriended who convinced Harry and me to do post-school workouts with her. We started this week, and sweat is not the best smell."

Eddie raised an eyebrow and asked with interest. "A new friend? You, Pete and Harry have been an inseparable group with nobody else as friends except yours-truly."

"There's Sha Shan."

"Alright, I'll give you that. But you don't seem to hang out with her that often."

"Fair enough." It was then that thunder rumbled, and Liz entered the lab.

"Petey?" she asked.

* * *

_The rest of that encounter happens canonically. We are finished episode 2. When enough changes have occurred, scenes will occur without a mention of the self insert. _

_Also, many thanks to Songbird of the End for beta'ing this entire fanfic so far. Otherwise this would be littered with overlooked grammar and spelling mistakes, and may have contained inconsistant characterizations.  
_


	5. End of the Hypothesis

_Hypothesis part D: Giving a self-insert powers will immediately doom them to Sue-dom if the writer does not distance themselves from the character of the self-insert_

* * *

Wednesday morning, Patience walked over to Harry and Gwen. She joined them in observing Peter's conversation with Liz.

After Liz made a clear statement about Peter leaving, he joined the group.

"Peter Parker: another victim of the wild, undomesticated cheerleader," Harry said in a smooth tone.

"It's her loss, Pete," chimed in Gwen.

"And hey, if her job was to learn, you taught her how to fold to peer pressure."

"Didn't she already know that?" Patience asked, clueless as usual.

"Don't examine the joke too closely," Harry responded.

"Besides, I reached out and she knocked my hand away. You can't control everything. Trick is to never stop trying."

At that, Patience blanched. "That sounds like something an evil overlord would say. 'You may not be able to control every persons' thoughts, but I will never stop trying!'"

Peter chuckled. "I guess evil overlords have the right sentiment, then."

* * *

At lunch, Peter and Gwen shocked Harry and Patience with what had happened the night before.

All Patience could say was, "You missed out on seeing Spider-Man?"

"Well yeah, seeing as Liz, Peter and I had to run out of the lab so we didn't get electrocuted," Gwen replied in an 'are you serious' tone of voice.

"Sorry, sorry, I was just curious. It sucks for that guy, though. To just be working, and then suddenly get lots of powers that you can't control."

Peter focused on chewing his sandwich intensely at this point.

"Anyway, Peter, do you want to join us for 2ks tomorrow?" Patience switched the subject randomly for the tenth time this week.

At this, he swallowed his bite of sandwich and shook his head. "I still have to focus on getting Spider-Man pictures. My aunt can't work, and the money we have isn't stretching far enough."

Patience nodded. "I understand. Personally, I'd see if I could work at a church's daycare, but that's just me." Then she looked at Harry and Gwen. "Which reminds me; do you guys want to work out on Friday? I was thinking we could have Fridays off so we can hang out and do other stuff."

"Sure. It will give me more time to work on my homework anyway" Gwen replied.

Harry shrugged. "Whatever you think is best."

* * *

That afternoon, they warmed up and set their screens for 2000 meters. They executed the race plan at a slower pace.

* * *

It was a peaceful and quiet night for those who were not in gang territory, downtown, or anywhere near the Lizard. So while Gwen and Dr. Martha Conners were working on the gene cleanser, Patience was fast asleep and had no idea of her friends' predicament. However, she did end up dreaming.

It was night in her dream. There was a decrepit building, and two men in it. One was wearing green body armor with a mask that had two yellow eyes, and standing in front of him was Spider-Man with half of his mask torn off. It was like she was watching a movie, with the angle she was seeing changing. The scene was far away and the volume was somewhat muffled, but she could see the man in green take off his mask, and talk. The shock on Spider-Man's face was evident, and she tried to shout out to Spider-Man to watch out because there was a glider floating behind him pointed towards him, but at the same time she thought about how _dumb_ it was for him to try and stab from behind a man who could sense danger behind his back. True to her mental predictions, Spider-Man jumped out of the way and the pointed dagger thing on the glider went through the man in green. His face was in shock as he said something that was much clearer and easier for her to hear despite not being louder, saying "Don't tell Harry."

The scene blanked out, and all was black except she heard these voices saying, "You don't belong, you know too much, you must be repressed, you don't belong, you know too much, you must be repressed..."

Later, Patience would wonder how _odd_ that dream was compared to previous ones, but how similar it was to ones that came afterward. Much later, she would understand why that was.

* * *

Patience woke up, put on her glasses and walked down the stairs to the kitchen in her night gown. She had filled her bowl with cereal and milky goodness when her brother called to her from the computer in the living room.

"Hey Patience, you like Spider-Man, right? There's an article in the Bugle with a picture of him."

"Really? Let me see!" Ignoring her breakfast for now, Patience leaned over her brother's shoulder and looked at the article.

"He fought a gigantic Lizard-person last night? That's so cool!" Then Patience scanned the web page, and saw an easily recognized name. "Article by Ned Lee, Photo by Peter Parker? Angus, that's one of my friends at school."

"Really now? Anyway, you should probably eat your breakfast. You don't want to be late for the bus, and I don't think you have a warp hole near by that will drop you off nearby."

"Angus, you know as well as I do that I get up way earlier than I need to in order to get ready for school. Besides, if I miss the bus I could probably flag down Spider-Man to web sling me across town" Patience joked.

"The 'Spider-Man Transportation Service' doesn't come to this part of town; didn't you know that?" Angus joked back.

Patience rolled her eyes and prepared for the rest of the day.

* * *

The first thing Patience noticed was that Gwen was a bit miffed at Peter. She gave him something called 'The Look' (which Patience found impressive and so she asked Gwen to teach her how to do it). However, Gwen was still talking to him while still shooting him glares. When asked, Gwen only said, "He left when he should have stayed." When asked to elaborate, Gwen replied, "It's confidential. Sorry."

It was because of this that at the beginning of their workout, Patience said, "Today, we are focusing on our 2ks. If anything has you stressed or annoyed, only focus on it if it will make you pull harder. Today, we focus on going as strong and hard as we can. However, I will go first to show you how one pulls a 2k." What Patience did not say was that rowers always had coxswains, and she wanted to be able to encourage and coxswain them both without having to worry about her 2k score being affected her shouting.

At her instructions, all three began to warm up on the erg for 15 minutes. After that was done, they stretched. Patience then hopped on the erg and tightened her foot straps, set up her screen, and breathed. Then she started.

It started with ten hard strokes. Patience focused on going up the slide slowly and breathing in, then pushing hard. Sweat began to appear on her skin, and then began to drip. Her mouth began to feel dry and furry 500 meters into the race- for it was a race despite it being at a practice. Her legs burned, her eyes focused on the numbers in front of her on the screen and her face began to morph into one of determination. Around the 1000 meter mark, she began to pull a little less hard and the number on the screen- her time per 500 meters- began to rise from 1:53 to 1:54, 1:55 and occasionally 1:56 and 1:57. Seeing this, Harry and Gwen began to cheer her on, blocking out the noise of the spinning fan that made the erg work. With 500 meters left to go, Patience began to focus even harder. At the 250 meter mark, she mentally counted down the strokes from 35 and went all out. Her split dropped to 1:50, 1:49 and lower. Finally, the numbers went to zero and Patience dropped the handle and flopped back.

Her face was red, sweat was dripping into her eyes and on the ground, and she drank at least half of her water bottle. She looked at the number on her screen, and recorded it in her notebook. She then took up her erg, and began to lightly pull, or go at a pace that would be called paddling in a boat. When she recovered her ability to speak, she looked at her two new found friends and said, "This is so your body doesn't kill you as much tomorrow. Gets rid of lactic acid."

Harry and Gwen nodded, and sat on ergs next to each other and began to warm up a bit more before their 2k. Patience rowed a bit more, and then stopped and stretched. She ended up drinking all of her water bottle.

Patience observed the race and when they finished, they both collapsed and were flushed with sweat dripping off thm.

"Alright guys, you might want to lightly erg in order to feel better. Don't try to stand just yet." Patience then looked around, and was glad that nobody else was in the weight room that day.

Before they began their cool down, Patience recorded in her notebook everyone's 2k time and their average split. Harry had taken 8 minutes and 40 seconds, with an average split of 2 minutes and ten seconds. Gwen's time was 9:20 with an average split of 2:20. Those times were horrendous for normal high school rowers, but as they were the first scores after both only working out for a week they were decent.

After the cool down workout and stretching, Patience looked at her two friends. "So, did I describe it accurately when I said it was two thousand meters of pain?"

"You forgot to mention the sweat, inability to stand afterwards, and the fact that your throat turns into the Savannah desert" Harry responded.

Gwen added, "I'm just glad that we have 40 minutes to shower and relax, or I could not work at Dr. Conners' today."

Patience's face lit up. "That reminds me; I forgot to congratulate Peter today. I saw his Spider-Man picture on the front page of the Bugle."

Harry laughed. "You forgot to mention Spider-Man to him? I thought you'd be all over him asking about your favorite superhero."

It was then Gwen cut in. "What photo? What was it a picture of?"

"Didn't you see? It was of Spider-Man fighting the Lizard- they had an article about the fight and the creature."

Gwen's face transformed from flushed and somewhat happy to one that looked like she was ready to smite someone. "Who did you say he was fighting?"

Somewhat oblivious to Gwen's change in mood, Patience cheerily responded, "The Lizard. That's what they're calling it, anyway. This big creature over six feet tall with scales and a tail- you should ask Dr. Conners if it was more of a lizard or a crocodile. Spidey fought it last night, and Peter managed to get a photo."

At that, Gwen walked right out of the weight room to the girl's locker room, ready to have a quick shower and search for a copy of the Bugle.

Patience turned to Harry. "What was that about?" she asked. Harry just shrugged.

* * *

Holding a copy of the Bugle, Gwen took a different bus route to arrive at the ESU labs. As she walked in, Eddie spied her copy of the Bugle.

"You saw the same thing I did, huh?" he asked with a venomous tone.

"Heard about it from a friend. I can't believe he did that," Gwen said in a bitter tone.

"Who did what?" Peter asked as he walked in.

Eddie placed his copy of the Bugle on a clear table, and both Dr. Conners approached.

"Look what the Bugle ran on its front page. And look at the photo's tagline" Eddie explained.

"Pete, how could you take advantage of Dr. Conners like that?" Gwen said in a low voice with a hard edge.

Dr. Curt Conners then said, "It's alright. Besides, I'm not in any position to throw stones." He then walked out.

"I-" Peter began to say.

"Peter, you're young. And face with difficult choices young people sometimes make mistakes," Martha Conners said.

"Thanks for understanding, I-"

"I understand you, but that does not mean I trust you. You're fired." With that, Peter left.

Dr. Martha Conners looked at Eddie and Gwen. "Alright, let's get to work. We have a lot to do after last night's escapade."

* * *

_Apparently Gwen does not receive the Daily Bugle, or she would not have been surprised when Eddie showed her the paper. The numbers for the scores of Harry and Gwen were based on how actual crew team members have performed; males tend to have better scores than females. Also, for this story episodes 1-5 are in September and 6-9 are in October. Not every chapter will revolve around an episode._


	6. Break Time

**_Venting out the goggles time_**

The next day, Patience cornered Gwen before school and asked with a tale of confusion and concern on her face, "What was that all about, yesterday?"

Gwen looked back at her with confusion, then realization, then narrowed her eyes. "Yesterday? Oh, when I ran out after you told me about the picture. It's just that Peter ran out of the lab during a... volatile experiment to get that picture, and jeopardized the lab."

Patience shrank back at the hostility in Gwen's voice, and made a mental note that Gwen was scary when angry and not to piss her off during the day. Seeing her current mood towards Peter, Patience could see her drawing a knife on him.

It was only later in the day that Patience asked herself what sort of genetics experiment could be that volatile to bring about that sort of ire. Which led to her asking Peter during lunch about what sort of experiment he ran out on last night. Which led to Gwen glaring daggers at both Patience and Peter.

Peter uncomfortably responded, "I'd tell you, but it's kind of a secret lab thing which Doc Conners has been working on for a while, and if I spill it, it could lead to someone else stealing his idea. I wish that he didn't let me go, but I know why he did." He then glanced towards Gwen to see if she was still giving him a look that could result in bones defying the laws of chemistry and physics to turn into lead. Her glare was only slightly less intense.

Harry muttered, "Must have been some experiment." Gwen giving him the same look as Peter received then closed all options of that line of discussion continuing.

Shaken by Gwen's response, Patience asked cautiously, "So, any plans for tonight? Any of you want to hang out?"

Peter gave a small smile and replied, "Sure. Maybe we could walk around down town?"

Harry said, "I'm in," with a shrug.

Gwen directed her response to Patience and Harry with a friendly smile. "I'd love to, but I don't think I can be around Peter right now. I'm still mad at him about last night. You guys can have fun, however."

The two who were talked to could only say one thing, and directed the semi rhetorical question at Peter. "What the hell did you do?"

* * *

That night was the first time Patience had seen Peter outside of lunch or school, and she decided to take advantage of it. To her, that meant she went on a quest to see how nerdy he was.

"Wait, you're into Magic, Death Note and Superman?" Patience asked.

"Yeah, why?" Peter responded in between eating his ice cream.

"It just seems like an interesting combination." Patience's eyes then widened in excitement as she threw the napkin that came with the now finished cone into the trash. "Hey, are you guys into Doctor Who?"

Harry smiled. "Of course. What kind of nerds would we be if we weren't? I like Christopher Eccelson."

Peter shook his head. "The tenth is obviously the best."

Patience then took up a thoughtful expression as she said, "But Matt Smith is promising. Anyway, what do you guys want to do now?"

The boys looked at each other conspiratorially. Reading each other's expressions, they nodded. At this, Patience tried her best to figure out what they were thinking.

"Let's go to the arcade. My treat," Harry said.

When it came to the fighting games, Patience's method of random button mashing and a few good combos fared decently against Peter's prowess. At DDR, she shined. At the hoop shooting, she failed miserably.

"Not so much strength! Stop trying to strong arm it in," Harry said.

"Aim lower. You need to angle it right," Peter advised.

Patience rolled her eyes, but did as said. However, she proved to use too much strength and it bounced back at her.

"Well, that was better. Have you ever been to an arcade before?" Harry asked.

"Once or twice. However, I have a friend who's dancing obsessed and she made sure I could play DDR well. I once beat a seven foot song with her," Patience confessed with pride.

Harry and Peter shrugged as they left. Then Peter received a call. He turned to them with downcast eyes and a slight frown.

"Sorry guys, but that's my call about my curfew. I've got to go home," Peter professed.

Patience shrugged. "Alright. Auf Wiedersehen!"

"Bye! See you guys on Monday!"

Harry looked at Patience. "Auf Wiedersehen?"

"What? I like to say things more awesome then 'Hi' and 'Bye'. Anyway, I guess we should go home too now, it is pretty late and I'd like be able to have a shower and wake up before eleven AM tomorrow."

Harry shrugged. "Sure. Do you know the way home?"

Patience smiled. "Of course! You go take the... I have no clue."

Harry rolled his eyes, and pointed at the nearest bus stop sign. "You live in that area, right? So take the bus with the matching number to your area, and then you're home."

Patience smiled. "Thanks Harry." She then mentally shrugged, and hugged him. Then the bus pulled up and seeing it was the one she needed, she stepped on and paid for her fare.

* * *

The next day was not only Saturday, but a day that Patience had arranged to hang out with her friend who was in college. They began talking about Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time at Katie's dorm and ended up discussing their new lives at schools in New York when Patience began talking about her new friends.

"Harry's cool, but seems quiet and shy even though he isn't. I don't hang around Peter much, but he seems busy and nerdy. Gwen's cool, but she seems wrathful enough to kill people with her glare. I mean..."

Katie interrupted Patience. "Wait, Harry Osborn? Isn't that the name of a character played by James Franco?"

Patience looked at her and blinked. "I don't think I heard of that movie. Could be a weird coincidence."

Katie frowned. "The movie came out in 2002, and I remember everyone talking about it. I thought that as a comic book fan you'd know the name."

"That's weird, I don't. Ah well, I'm sure it'll come to me. Maybe I'll look up my friends' names on Google or something."

"Want to do so now?"

Patience looked taken aback, and then grinned. "No way. I want to meet and annoy your fellow dorm members."

* * *

Later that night, Patience stared at the Google home page. At the back of her mind, she had a nagging feeling that she should be looking something up. After ten straight minutes of staring and trying vainly to remember, she closed her lap top and went to bed.


End file.
